 |
| Image – Raheem Ali OKX @X (twitter) |
OKX (formerly OKEx), a cryptocurrency centralized exchange (CEX) and wallet platform, plans to enter the Indian market and recruit local employees in an effort to expand the possibilities of Web3 applications, said a report by CoinDesk.
In an interview to CoinDesk, Haider Rafique, Chief Marketing Officer of OKX, said, OKX plans to scale up its wallet services "exponentially" by tapping into India's much-talked-about developer community. Currently, OKX has about 200,000 wallet users in India, which is only 5% of the nation's Web3 users.
Founded by Star Xu in 2017, OKX is a global cryptocurrency spot and derivatives exchange, and the second biggest crypto exchange by trading volume, serving over 50 million people globally.
OKX would deliberate on where it can add value to Indian market. "We're going to work with local folks. Figure out where we can add value.", said Rafique.
Rafique said the company has no immediate plans to open an office in India because that's not required to offer Web3 services. However OKX is looking to hire a team, in India, to lead this effort.
Seychelles headquartered OKX has offices in Dubai, Turkey, Hong Kong, Silicon Valley, Singapore, and Australia.
To recall, it was in September 2021 when, in a first strategic partnership in India, OKX joined hands with Bitbns, India's leading crypto wallet and exchange platform to elevate flexible trading capabilities for Indian crypto users across the region. OKX and Bitbns have had integrated using the matic-polygon ecosystem to provide free blockchain transfers to its users.
Notably, Cryptocurrencies isn't banned in India, and neither its legal, and Indian regulations impose a 30% tax on trading of cryptocurrencies.
Rafique said he thinks regulators in India are beginning to separate Web3 from centralized finance (CeFi). “They’re more concerned about venues that have fiat on-ramps, which we do but we don’t offer it in India,” he said.
Last year in January, OKEx rebranded to OKX to reflect that it is more than an exchange and has growing number of wealth creation opportunities beyond the exchange, which investors use to trade hundreds of digital assets on spot, margin and derivatives markets.
Advertisements